Some Summer Gardening Chores

There are still lots of gardening chores which can be done–even while it over 100F outside. First, don’t get caught outside if it’s over 100F. Get all your outside work finished before it gets hot.

Be sure to drink lots of water if/when you work outside now. You lose about a quart of water when you’re outside sweating in this weather–that’s 2 pints of water. You need to replace it so that you can avoid getting too tired too quickly. Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants to avoid sunburn and mosquito bites. Use a good bug repellent if you have lots of mosquitoes where you live.

Keep the lawn mower blade sharp. It’s much easier on the grass if you do…dull blades tear the grass, sharp ones cut it; like using scissors on your hair. Which would you rather have? By sharp, I mean about as sharp as a kitchen knife (one at my house, not necessarily yours).

If you have white powdery-looking stuff on the leaves of the crape myrtles, it usually means that the plants are receiving too much water. It’s called powdery-mildew and is a fungal disease. You can treat it with a good systemic fungicide if you really feel that you must.. Be sure to follow the directions on the label…more is not necessarily better. You’ll probably have to treat the trees/bushes 3-4 times to get rid of the mildew. The best way to get rid of it, however, is to back off on the water the plant receives–especially in the evening. Wet leaves on a plant just invite fungus problems. Remember that fungus loves moisture, heat, and darkness–all of which we have plenty around here.

If you have pecan trees and are expecting a good crop of nuts this year, you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up too high. The pecan trees around now have lots of shells, but few of them have full kernels inside. That takes lots of water. If you want to give it a shot, be sure that you wet the entire surface under the entire canopy of the tree. THAT’S how far out the feeding roots of a tree are. Be sure to water the trees deeply and regularly. Let the hose run slowly for a couple of hours each time you drop it under the tree and repeat weekly.

This is also a good time to prune any damaged trees or bushes you have. Remember to prune limbs back to the point of attachment. Get rid of any crossing or rubbing branches as well as any branches that have been damaged some way. It’s okay to prune your live oaks now if you need to do that. Be sure to paint each cut immediately after you cut. Don’t leave all the cuts and think that you’ll go back and paint later. You’ll miss some. I guarantee it.

If you’re thinking about putting in a new bed or two, and if the bed is going to be irregularly-shaped, use the garden hose to lay it out so that you can see about how it will look and how big it will be. Use white spray paint to mark the area along the hose so you’ll know where to remove the grass. You can either dig up the grass and put it in your compost pile (roots up, please) or use Roundup to kill out the grass and anything else in the bed. Be sure to spray the Roundup when the wind is calm because it’ll kill whatever it gets on–trees included. Roundup only kills the plants. It deactivates when it hits the ground so that it only kills the plants that are actively growing at the time you sprayed. It’ll take a week or more to see the results, but by then you can go ahead and till in the dead grass or remove it to the compost pile.

Draw up a little plan of your new bed so that you know for sure where everything is to go. That way, if you don’t get it done all at once, you’ll still know what goes where.

Add 2-4 inches of compost and about 2 pounds of slow-release lawn fertilizer to each 100 square feet and till it again. Water it real good and let it set for a couple of weeks if you can wait that long. If not, go ahead and plant the new bed. As hot as it is not, though, I think I’d wait another week or two.

If you see leaf rollers in the cannas (they roll up the leaves and eat a hole through them so that you get a row of holes when the leaf unfolds) or worms on the mountain laurel (you see the webs and chewed-up leaves before you see the worms usually), or web worms in your trees, use Bt or Spinosad to control them organically. Both Bt and Spinosad are organic products so won’t hurt anything but the worms. If they’re in the trees and you don’t want to spray anything, just break open the web so that Mother Nature’s worm-busters can get to them.

Gardening Classes

We just got word today that the Fall, 2009, gardening classes are now listed on the web and you can sign up for classes now if you like. Those sponsored by the Northeast ISD are held at the San Antonio Botanical Garden on Saturday mornings or their Community Learning Center from 9:30-11:30 are listed at www.communityed.neisd.net. The classes for O’Connor High School are from Northside ISD and can be found at www.nisd.net/ace. They’re held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at O’Connor High School. The classes sponsored by Club Ed in Kerrville are held either in Boerne at the Community Center or in Kerrville at the Aldt House. All of these classes are listed on my website: www.thehillcountrygardener.com on page 5. You can also get directions to each of the sites from there. C’mon down and have a good time with us.

On September 25, we’ll be having a Square Foot Gardening workshop in Kerrville from 9 am-12:30 pm. This workshop will show you how to build a 4′ x 8′ square foot garden bed with all the fixin’s. If you pay the fee, you get to take one of these beds home with you. Each bed will be constructed, a grid added, and a drip irrigation system installed on it. PLUS, you get a bonus CD showing you how to build raised beds…absolutely free. The workshop only has 2-3 places left, so don’t wait too long to sign up at www.clubed.net.

Send your comments and/or questions to gardener@gvtc.com or see the website at www.thehillcountrygardener.com.